How to see Italy by train

In a new book, Tim Parks says that to get under the skin of Italy, you must board a train. Whether an ultra fast service to Rome or a time-warp dawdler to Milan, all national life is there.

8:00AM BST 23 Jun 2013

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Here are a few complications that may occur if you take the 18.36 Regionale Veloce on a Sunday evening from Verona (Porta Vescovo) to Milan (Centrale). Your underlying problem is that this is a small station where the fast through trains from Venice to Milan don t stop.

You could get a local to Verona Porta Nuova, the main station on the other side of town and then a fast Frecciabianca; but if some delay hardly unusual prevents you from making your connection, you ll be left holding a ticket that is valid only for that one reserved-seats-only train. Not good.

Or you could go to Verona and wait for another regionale. However, the westbound Milan departures seem timed to depart just seconds before your train arrives from the east. You ll be caught waiting nearly an hour.

Given this situation, you feel rather grateful that there are still four slower trains a day from Venice right through to Milan, stopping in Verona Porta Vescovo. Regionale Veloce, means fast regional, but is actually a slow train. Let s say, the faster of the slower trains. On which you can t reserve a seat even if you want to.

It costs 11.55 (£10) to go 150km in just under two hours. A giveaway by British standards. The Italians still have the concept of social pricing, even if their rail system is monstrously in debt. The Frecciabianca costs 23 (£19.50). This could be why the regionale, when it arrives, is so grotesquely packed.